New Info: Honey

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22398921/

I've known honey was an antibacterial and you could use it on wounds in a pinch, but I hadn't yet heard that they are actually starting to use it in hospitals as a salve for wounds.  It sounds like they are getting a lot of good results from it.  Note that the honey they use is an Australian/New Zeland variety that's more potent than standard American or English honey. 

Before the introduction of sugar in the middle ages, tooth cavities were pretty much non-existant in medieval Europe.  That's because cane sugar feeds the bacteria that decays teeth and makes them more agressive on our teeth, whereas honey kills the bacteria and therefore causes LESS tooth decay.

My question is: if you consume honey, can it kill bacteria in your stomach and/or intestines, or does it get broken down before it gets in there?  If it were in a pill form, would it work better?  I think some people on here see holistic doctors, so I think this would be a question for them.  If it could help with bacterial problems in the digestive tract, then (unless you are diabetic) it might be worth trying.   

Actually, infants under the age of 2 aren't supposed to have any honey. Something about them being at risk of catching botulism from it, or something like that. I don't know why toddlers, children and adults don't get sick from it, but it is a no-no for babies.

But thanks for the recipe. Although I could just eat it without mixing with water.

I wonder if we should get Sarita eating some daily? God only knows what all she's got in her guts!

I heard that honey will never go bad either though mine tends to get funny looking and too thick. I love honey and never did understand how it could be such a perfect food and that you never were supposed to give it to babies. Seems contradictory.

I knew about the lemons; a lady that used to substitute teach for my school warned us about lemons. She said she and her son both loved to eat them and they had ruined the enamel on their teeth because of that.

But why is honey supposed to be bad on babies' teeth? Is it something about them developing/pushing through? I know it's not a source of tooth decay.

I had heard that honey not only *doesn't* rot your teeth, it actually prevents tooth decay by killing the bacteria in your mouth that actually cause the decay (the same reason why they put honey on a wound to kill the infection).

I read an article about a year ago that when they dug up a 13th or 14th century churchyard in Scotland, they found that the people there had no tooth decay, versus something like 2 out of every 3 modern Scottish children has had at least one cavity by age 5.

Now, how much honey was used by average medieval people is very speculative, but as far as I am aware, there wasn't tooth decay among wealthy people either and we know they ate quite a bit of it. Queen Elizabeth and many other noble people from her time are known to have had very rotten teeth (I think Queen Elizabeth ended up losing all of hers before her death), but then that's the exact same time that cane sugar appeared in England (and recipes call for it). That we don't have seem to have records of mass tooth decay just before that time would imply that honey doesn't do that. I've eaten desserts from medieval recipes, so I know they liked sweet even before sugar, so it wasn't like dessert was invented with the coming of sugar cane.

Rich people also ate a lot of fruits for dessert; the sugar in them should have been enough to rot their teeth, but it doesn't seem to have done so. Of course, they liked honey on their fruit. So maybe the honey was protecting their teeth? It's not like they had floridated water or toothpaste (toothbrushes appear to have been invented in the later part of the middle ages, but you would have brushed with water or even ale). However, they also drank alcohol with every meal. Very weak alcohol, but alcohol nonetheless. That, rather than the honey, may have been the best dental defense they had. Think of swiging Listerine after every meal. However, they also drank alcohol in the Elizabethan period and yet got rotten teeth. So there's still a difference between honey and cane sugar.

They say the best honey to consume is locally produced stuff, not the stuff you get in the grocery store. They have found that people who ate locally-grown honey actually had slightly fewer pollen allergies. I have a couple of honey producing friends, and I'm almost 100% positive that they don't heat the honey, as you mention, which is probably why people also recommend that you buy local.

I guess honey fell out of favor as a sweetner not only because cane sugar became a rich-person's sweetner, but white sugar has no taste. It's sweet, but has no flavor other than that. Raw sugar, on the other hand, tastes like molasses. Brown sugar has a little bit of that same flavor. Honey, of course, tastes like honey. But sugar you can add to anything and not change the taste--just the sweetness. Thus why they hide it in things like ketchup. You couldn't add honey to ketchup and not have anyone notice it!

Oh yes, definitely genetic! I know people who brush two and three times a day and still have terrible tooth problems. And some people hardly brush and never have any. My aunt is 44 or so and has had to have all of her top teeth pulled because they abcessed. And she brushed all the time too. Of course, I'm not sure if abcessing is necessarily caused by actual tooth decay, or if it's independent, like gum disease. Most gum diseases are unaffected by what you eat; they're highly genetic.

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=40235-honey-fights-tooth

This is an interesting (short) article on honey research. This doctor did find honey to prevent tooth decay, but notice that some honeys are as much as 100 times more antimicrobial than others. So it might mean that some honeys do not produce enough antimicrobial/hydrogen peroxide action to kill the bacteria that the fructose in them stirs up, while some honeys wipe your mouth clean. So it may mean that both sides are right: depending on the honey, it may cause tooth decay or it may prevent it. Medieval Europeans may have just lucked out and had the right kind of flowers for their honeybees (of course, they also didn't process it and weaken it). Not to mention the bees themselves make a difference when it comes to honey strength; I'm not sure what kind(s) they had back then or how different they are from bees in Europe now.

I can't remember: is Stevia safe for diabetics?

Well, while we are on the subject of teeth and honey and lemons. I ruined my teeth by sucking on citrus drops (Smith Bros) for years but I always had poor teeth as a child before I did that. It is the genes, I think. Anyway, my dentist asked if I ate a lot of citrus and I said No. And then he mentioned the citrus rings at the base of the enamel on my teeth and that is when we figured it out. I was actually sleeping with one in my mouth and it was still there in the morning. He said I was bathing my teeth in sugar which was causing the decay and the rings were because of the citrus that had etched into the enamal. I also have always had poor saliva which can cause tooth decay as well as making it very hard to digest food properly. So it is a catch 22 situation. The sugar free drops kill my stomach. I would think honey would be good for digestion as well.

Yowie said...
I believe Honey could make things alot worse, especially when you think that sibo can cause fructose intolerance (e.g. in my case) and honey is chock full of fructose.

Yes, honey is at the very top of the list of foods to avoid if you have fructose malabsorption/intolerance.  I once ran across a study (from Australia, I seem to recall) that reported that a substantial percentage of IBS sufferers have fructose malabsorption or (more rarely) intolerance.

Canyonbabe711 said...
How did you find out you had fructose intolerance? What test did they give you?

Fructose malabsorption is diagnosed via a hydrogen breath test in which they have you injest fructose and then monitor your breath for 2 hours or so.  I'm not sure how fructose intolerance is tested for--it's a much rarer, more serious hereditary disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose_malabsorption

I don't know about honey, but you can take Bee pollen as a supplement. I personally can't stand it, it tastes like dirt, but my mom eats a teaspoon everyday and says it gives her great energy. It also has a whole host of other benefits such as being a perfect protein, 28 minerals, enzymes that help digestion, and some vitamins.